The question had hovered over the Predators since the franchise’s inception and didn’t seem to be going away:

Will Nashville ever win a playoff series?

It started with a six-game, first-round exit to the Red Wings to end the 2003-04 season, and the struggles continued.

The closest Nashville had come was in 2010. The Predators had the Blackhawks on the ropes in Game 5 at Chicago, but an errant Martin Erat pass led to a short-handed, game-tying goal at the end of regulation. The Blackhawks won in overtime and finished the series in Game 6 in Nashville.

Every time the Predators got close, it seemed misfortune would strike.

“A lot of people, every year they’d say somehow, someway the Preds found a way to get in the playoffs,” Nashville coach Barry Trotz said. “But for us, there was a lot of pressure in terms of the elephant in the room: we couldn't get through that first round.

“It was a little bit in terms of physically sometimes we didn’t match up, and when teams kicked their games up to the next level, we were maybe not able to kick it as high.”

It all changed on April 22, 2011, in Anaheim, Calif.

Their Western Conference quarterfinal series with the Ducks tied at 2-2, the Predators were down a goal near the end of a pivotal Game 5. For Predators fans, it seemed like the same story, just a different year. But Shea Weber had different plans.

With 35.3 seconds left in regulation and goaltender Pekka Rinne on the bench so the Predators could deploy an extra attacker, the All-Star defensemen ripped one of his signature slap shots past Anaheim’s Ray Emery to tie the game.

Less than two minutes into overtime, Jordin Tootoo and Nick Spaling assisted Jerred Smithson on one of the biggest goals in franchise history.

“I don’t think we were expected to score a lot of goals,” Spaling said of that line. “But in that series we managed to sneak a couple in. That’s always a good feeling for a line to be able to contribute in the playoffs, and at a time like that it was obviously awesome, pretty excited especially for Smitty to get the goal.”

It was appropriate that Tootoo, Spaling and Smithson were the three players in on that goal. They embodied the “Predator Way” that Trotz preaches about all the time — a tough, gritty style rather than flash and skill.

Smithson, for example, scored just five goals in 82 games during the regular season but was a stalwart in the faceoff dot and a fixture on the penalty kill.

“I don’t score many goals, so that’s definitely the biggest in my career, by far,” Smithson said. “I’ve scored some fairly big goals whether they’re shorthanded or timely goals, stuff like that. But that magnitude is by far the biggest so far.”

The joy and relief was evident when Smithson leapt into the arms of defenseman Kevin Klein, knocking him to the ice while the rest of the team swarmed them.

“They were all drafted and they epitomized the hard work, unsung heroes,” Trotz said. “It was fitting that they were all a part of that. It was huge. It was huge for us, it was huge for the franchise, and it sort of set the city on fire that we were here for a while.”

Indeed, the buzz was nearly palpable at Bridgestone Arena before Game 6 — where the Predators would finish off the Ducks 4-2 for the first playoff series win in franchise history.

“It was exciting to come out in warm-ups, and the crowd, you could feel the energy and feel their excitement,” Spaling said. “There was a lot of buildup to that game and a lot of buildup to win a series finally. There was a little bit of pressure, too, but it was a good pressure and the guys were looking forward to the challenge.”